China Travel Forum

[Maria Smith]

In the summer of 2005 I will visit China with my 11 year old daughter. We will stay for 5 weeks. She wants to see the great wall, but that is the only plan we have so far. A river trip would be nice. I would be grateful for suggestions about places of interest for children, child-friendly guesthouses, and nice places to stay on the sea or lake-shore with swimming possibilities.
I have never been to China myself so I welcome any suggestion about the most interesting places to visit, things to see, and some kind other places

[Audrey Dawling]

You could consider Yangshuo/Guilin for the scenery/cycling/river tours side of things but it is a real tourist area and also pretty far from Beijing.

Having said that, once you get out on the river or on your bicycle there it's pretty peaceful - the town itself is crowded with tourists and accessible tourist trail restaurants but that might be a good thing to come back to after a day in the countrysiside.
The sleeper trains are a great way to get around and experience the Chinese way of life...
Make sure you keep properly hydrated. It is VERY hot here in the summer. Bottled water is available everywhere. Practice using chopsticks now. It's a good skill to have here. Get yourself a copy of the Rough Guide to Mandarin and find a tutor to teach you and your daughter the basics. It's a great ice breaker. Practice shopping English as well Yangshuo. Take the hike up Moon Hill. Take a river trip and look at the cool karst mountains. There is also a cave trip where you go through mud slides etc.
Xian and the terracotta warriors. There is also a terrific FUN waterpark just by one of the Goose Pagodas. The museum south of the city walls is very good as well. We all enjoyed wandering through the Moslem quarter. We learned the Moslem greeting 'asalam alikem' and greeted folks with that which was very well received. Food is great there too. Lijiang is very charming in Yunnan province. It's old and lots of small cafes and canals. Wander off the beaten track and get
'lost'..make sure you have a card from your hotel before you wander. My kids also enjoyed Jinghong south of Kunming,Great Wall. I would like some opinions which part is best to visit, avoiding the tourist bus hassle, but not dangerous.
and the western china most interesting pllace .from Xian you take triain/planearrive Urumqi.arround Urumqi so many beautiful places
the heavenly lake southern mountain ,and turpan city.

[Margreet]

I will be going to China with an 11 year old daughter too this summer for 5.5 weeks, because she wanted to see the Great Wall.
So far, looking in guide books and on the net I plan to fly to Beijing, stay there for around 5 days, go to Hohhot to visit the grassland to stay in a yurt. From there take night train to Zhongwei to visit Shapotou desert research center, which has a lot of fun activities like river sheepskinrafting, sliding from the sand dunes, camel trips and the like.
Then on to Chengdu, see giant panda, big buddha in Leshan, climg Emei Shan, and stay overnight in monastery, take a flight to Guiyang and go on to Kaili to visit minority villages via route to Sanjiang/Chengyang wind and rain bridge, Long Sheng dragon backbone rice terasses. Maybe instead of flying to Guiyang I will fly to Guilin and make the loop Long Sheng/Sanjiang from there, depending on time. From there we will go Yangshou to relax the last week or so. I have a flight back from Canton.
I will arrive in Beijing on the 21st of july, fly back from Canton on the 27th of august. Maybe its fun for the girls to meet.